On the ice, though, there is something to feel good about as the Calgary Flames returned from a rollercoaster road trip with a 2-1-1 record.

The biggest question, of course, remains the future of head coach Bill Peters.

He wasn’t behind the bench as the Flames capped a four-game getaway with Wednesday’s 3-2 overtime triumph against the Buffalo Sabres at KeyBank Center, instructed to stay away as the team completes an investigation into claims of a racial slur during his days as a minor-league skipper about a decade ago.

“Obviously, there are a lot of things going on right now,” said Flames right-winger Elias Lindholm. “But we can only affect what’s going on out on the ice and I think, as a group, we’ve done a pretty good job.

“We got the two points at the end, and that’s all that matters.”

When Lindholm buried Wednesday’s game-winner on a backhand wraparound, the Flames improved to 12-12-4 and — at least momentarily — climbed into a tie for a playoff spot. It was possible they would be bounced again by late results.

Some folks still believe it’s a big deal to be in the post-season picture on U.S. Thanksgiving, although that will hardly be the talk of the town in Calgary as our neighbours to the south enjoy their turkey and stuffing.

Flames general manager Brad Treliving is hoping to provide another update on the Peters investigation sometime Thursday.

In the meantime, associate coach Geoff Ward ran Calgary’s bench in Buffalo, with a couple of extra helpers — Martin Gelinas, a member of the staff who typically serves as the eye-in-the-sky and assistant general manager Craig Conroy.

“All in all, all of the circumstances surrounding the last couple of days, I thought the guys did a fantastic job,” Ward said. “We were resilient, found a way to hang around and get the win at the end.

“I’m just happy for the team,” he continued. “The team has been going through a lot of stuff the last couple of weeks. We’ve had our struggles and things have been going on outside of the circumstances of the last couple of days. It’s nice for the guys to get rewarded, finally. We’re starting to see an upturn in our game. We can’t be satisfied with where we are. But we can be happy with the way we pulled through this the last couple of days.”

Indeed, this four-game road-trip must feel like it’s lasted closer to four weeks.

There was bad news in St. Louis, where they were blown out by defending champion Blues, called a players-only meeting immediately after a sixth straight loss and then were stranded overnight because their charter plane was delayed on a previous stop.

There was good news, finally, in Philadelphia, where the Flames ended their six-game slide with a shootout triumph. They were also thrilled to see defenceman TJ Brodie, who rejoined the team after a scary collapse in practice the previous week.

“What we did as players is we said to one another, this is almost a way to get away from everything off ice right now — playing games and practising,” Giordano said. “And I thought we did a good job of that.”

In Buffalo, the Flames allowed the go-ahead goal early in the third period but rallied thanks to Tkachuk’s tying tally just two minutes later.

Tkachuk and Brodie each collected a pair of points — one marker and one helper apiece — against the Sabres, while David Rittich delivered 34 saves. The Flames have now collected points in three straight dates.

“We’re going back home feeling way better about ourselves,” Tkachuk said. “And that’s the important part — the feeling in the dressing room, it’s great right now. We’re not sitting in a pretty spot, we’re .500, but the way things started and the way things were going, for us to get back to the way we know we can a little bit …

“We know we’re still a little bit of a ways away, but that’s fine.”

A lot has transpired while they were away, a lot of questions remain, but there was reason for the Flames to be satisfied as they boarded a late-night flight back from Buffalo.

“I thought we did a lot of good thing again tonight,” Giordano said. ”We’re finding ways to get points and hopefully our confidence keeps growing and growing and this will turn into some sort of little streak for us.”

While these are tense times around the Flames organization as higher-ups ponder Peters’ future, the shared goal of the players and coaches is to ensure that doesn’t impact the on-ice performance.

For one night anyway, it didn’t.

“They seem to be a bit looser around the room. They seem to be having more fun again, which is important,” Ward said. “And those things are usually signs that you’re starting to turn your game around. Our job is to make sure we keep it moving in the right direction.”

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